Author
Topic: Blind Leading Blind [CLOSED] (Read 1581 times)

Noir wasn’t all too sure as to why he was in the library. He did say that he was going to pick up a book for his teammates since it would’ve been a good read for them. In fact, it was in his nature to help out a friend however he could. Unfortunately, Noir didn’t quite have the foresight to realize that he does not have the capabilities of finding the book he’s looking for. Now he’s in Beacon’s vast library with no form of assistance whatsoever as it seems like the attendant is currently out on a break. A quick sense of the aura also doesn’t reveal much either, with most of them out of the way and isolated. He didn’t have the heart to bother those people while they’re trying to do whatever they need to do in a library

Noir really didn’t have the will to return back to the dorm, but he really didn’t have anywhere else to go for the rest of the day. That’s why he’s now going to meander thoughtlessly throughout the library with his headphones on and music jamming. Of course, he occasionally bumps into a lot of things that he didn’t expect, but that’s just because they’ve been moved. As long as he takes it slow, he probably won’t be in too much pain.

While Noir’s at it, he might as well look like he’s doing something as he picks up random books and dropping them off elsewhere.

Anna was sat in a comfy chair, a pile of books on the table besides her and another one in hand. Her left hand hovered over it as she read, occasionally flipping a page. Truly, some good relaxation time.

At some point, she heard some footsteps pass by. This, while an uncommon occurrence, was by no means rare. What was rare, though, was the music accompanying them. If it wasn't for the slightly muffled nature of the sound, she could've sworn they were just playing music on their scroll's speaker. Displeased, she stopped reading and turned her head towards the source a little to find out what in the world was wrong with them.

The steps (and music) headed to a nearby bookshelf, where some light shuffling was heard. Oh, so they were picking up some books. Not really minding that, Anna went back to her book. The steps passed in front of her again and headed off. Not very far, though - they stopped near what was, from what Anna remembered, another bookshelf. Books were set down and other picked up.

This repeated at least 3 times before Anna gave up on reading entirely, inserting her bookmark before putting the book on the top of her pile. Using her semblance's second stage, she looked for the culprit from her seat.

If one was to look at Noir in his current predicament, they’d be slightly confused. After all, they’d only see some guy randomly moving books between bookshelves while having difficulties while doing so. Not only that, but the music playing through his headphones and the bobbing head hints that he’s not too aware of a lot of things. Externally, it seems like Noir is out of it and is literally just doing whatever in the library to curb his boredom.

Internally however, Noir is currently screaming in his head. It’s so embarrassing to be doing whatever he’s doing, especially since he could just go somewhere else and do something - except for the fact it takes way too long to do anything else. In fact, he might as well just call it quits and actually wait for the library attendant to come back.

If only he didn’t walk into a table he distinctly remembered not being there and fall over in surprise. If only. Now that he thinks about it, maybe all his movement made him lose his orientation within the location. Maybe he should’ve stopped being the dumb. Unfortunately, it was too late to stop the fall and his idiocy.

Looking - so to speak - confirmed her auditory suspicions; the man was indeed shuffling any number of tomes back and forth in utterly random sequence. Several times, he picked up books he'd placed beforehand and brought them back to where he picked them up from, seemingly out of nothing but sheer coincidence. All the while, his music kept blaring through to the outside world and, undoubtedly, his eardrums. What was even more peculiar about him was how he moved. Slowly, carefully, occasionally avoiding a chair or six at the last femtosecond. Was... Was he literally blind?

Anna's deep guesswork at the possibility of the guy being simply unable to see and opting to do... whatever he was doing was summarily interrupted as the aforementioned maybe-blind misnavigated directly into a table not twenty feet away. Unprepared as he'd been for the object to suddenly manifest in his legs, he fell across the piece of furniture in a most spectacular and mortifying fashion. Anna instantly shot off from her seat and ran to his side, kneeling on arrival. With a clearly worried tone, she asked "A-are you okay?"

Yes, this was a school for Huntsmen-to-be and yes, the guy probably had Aura, but that looked like it hurt a lot.

To be quite honest, Noir came really close to bursting into tears. Not only did it hurt, but he hurt himself in the most silly way possible. If anything, knowing that someone probably witnessed it made him feel even worse. Almost tearfully (and pitifully), Noir couldn’t help but groan in response. ”Y-Yeah, I’m okay… T-Thanks for asking…” Sitting up, Noir would proceed to curl in despair as he tries to hide his presumably embarrassed face with his hands. In fact, he was so embarrassed that he let out a moan of despair. ”Why me?”

He should’ve just left. Noir shouldn’t have listened to the voices in his head that told him that he had nothing better to do. If anything, Noir could’ve done literally anything else that would’ve been less embarrassing than this! He wouldn’t want to use his semblance for something as menial as this as well! While wallowing in eternal sadness, he sort of turns his hidden face towards where the girl’s voice came from with a question to distract her, and hopefully himself.

Anna's hand surged forward before stopping, hovering indecisively above the man's shoulder. As he sat up, she brought her hand back and turned off her semblance, which was no longer of any immediate use. It was all she could do to just sit there besides him, not really sure on how she should be trying to comfort the stranger.

Soon enough, though, he asked her a question - by the sound of it, he'd raised his head back up and turned towards her. "Y-yes, I'm a student here. I'm Anna. W-what about you?"

Her curiosity gnawed at her at the back of her mind but asking 'are you blind' right now would just be too rude, honestly.

”Y-Yeah, the name’s Noir. Fourth-year student.” Noir is still hiding his face from the world and he’s still curled up into his fetal position. In fact, the continued presence of Anna actually seems to make him want to cry even more! Now that he thinks about it, he does feel some tears streaming down his face. The tears come out at a faster pace as Noir almost starts bawling. ”I-I’m sorry…. Y-You probably think I’m some l-loser…”

This was nothing new for him. Noir always messes up like this, especially because of the whole blindness thing. In fact, he can definitely expect the usual response to his mess up. At least he can’t cry any harder since he’s used to this. Not bothering to wipe away his tears, Noir tries to distract himself and learn more about his fellow student. Except it leads to a train of thought that fills him with growing horror. ”U-Um, actually now that I think about it, w-what year are you?”

A mild panic steadily started growing in Anna's mind as the man's voice grew ever more tear-ridden. She didn't have much experience interacting with others, much less interacting with others in mental distress. The panic barely poked through into her voice as she said "Oh n-no, I don't think you're a loser at a-all! Just, uh, m-maybe a bit b-blind?" She attempted to extend a hand and put it on his shoulder, but hit air and landed softly on the small of his back. Welp.

As there was a pause in the, erm, conversation, she desperately attempted to determine whether or not she should inform him of the fact that she's also blind when another question cut through her thoughts. Taking a moment to switch gears, she answered "F-first year, why?"

Noir was basically close to freaking out. The mention of his blindness stung just a little bit, and the foreign hand that came out of nowhere also surprised him. However, the thing that got him wailing was the fact it was his junior that witnessed his fuck up. With that, Noir couldn’t help but start tearing up even more audibly. ”I-I’m sorry,” as Noir sniffs, ”Y-You probably expect more from your senior.”

Unfortunately, as much as Noir would like to continue curling up in despair, it would be much better for him to quickly vacate the premises in order to at least preserve what little dignity he has left. Still hiding his face and trying to get up, Noir would turn towards Anna once again. ”Um…. T-Thanks. I-I’m gonna stop getting in your way now.” As he begins to move, Noir stumbles once again back into his seated position. Here comes the tears again. ”O-Or not.”

The panic that'd momentarily subsided when Noir had asked her a question flooded right back, in force. Worst of all, she didn't think about visual cues like waving your hands in denial or anything. Not that it would've really helped, considering the fact that he was most likely as blind as she was, if not more so. "Nononononono, no, no! O-of course not! I'd be hard-pressed to m-manage as well as you without my semblance!" Worry actively ran across her face, sending forth information that was utterly lost to everyone involved.

There was a brief moment of respite where neither sobbing or tear-filled words could be heard, but that lasted only until her senior failed to get up, his throat audibly constricting as he spoke. Anna was about to either hug him or start crying so, in desperation, she did all she could think of that might change the subject and/or focus. "C-can I help you with anything in the library? I come here p-pretty often..."

That's right, a question. A vague one at that. Articulated to try and not press on the navigation error Noir had suffered through. And was still suffering through, come to think of it.

Noir wipes away his tears and tries to stifle his sobs so he can get himself calmed down in a more presentable manner. Except he can’t stop his new tears from flowing down and his sobs whatsoever. Oh well. In a voice that’s dead in every manner except physical, Noir despondently responds, ”Uh… w-well, I was looking for a-a book for my team. I-I think it was the ‘Art of Combat’ by Tun Szu,” Noir curls up within himself as he sort of just… waits in eternal sadness, ”Y-You don’t have to help, I-I can come back next time…”

Honestly, Noir couldn’t help himself and proceeds to overshare. ”I-I just didn’t wanna look like an idiot. I still ended up being a-a big dummy... “ Is it wrong for him to try and look somewhat normal? All he wanted was to get the book, and if not the book, then at least some sense of normalcy. Instead, he had ended up doing a goof infront of his junior who is being very accomodating to him right now. If anything, Anna was too accomodating and Noir only felt like he was troubling her. With that, the tear production doubled its rates as waves of sadness came crashing down over and over again.

Alright, this wasn't working. She was gonna have to bring out the big guns. Anna moved the hand that was on the guy's back to his left shoulder and her other hand found, after a brief hesitation, his right shoulder. Grasping them firmly, she pulled him to his feet and held him there as much as necessary, bringing him closer to her in a sort of half-hug-brohug-whatever. At this time, her logic center was completely out and nothing but instinct kept her going.

"Being blind doesn't make you look like an idiot. It's who you are, for better or worse, and you've no reason to be ashamed of it." As her brain started working better again, she realized what she was doing and turned considerably more sheepish. "B-by the way, have you ever come to the library before? There're s-some braille helps, like maps, close to where the assistant usually is. With categories a-and everything." She took a slow, small step forward, aiming to bring Noir to his desired destination... sooner or later.

Noir doesn't seem to resist being pulled up to his feet, but he certainly stiffens in surprise from the strange amalgamation of hugging and all its variations. His face reddens, especially since he was not prepared for that at all. "Uh, uh, uh, uh..." His brain seems to have crashed and now he's beginning to reboot. Rapid blinking for some unknown reason as he tries to formulate a thought. Words. Sentences. Anything really.

"U-Um... I-I don't go to the library too often... U-Usually already have what I need..." He just follows along with Anna, since he's certainly not able to act on his own now.

...Okay, good, Noir seemed like he was slowly coalescing into human shape again - so to speak. Anna kept going forwards slowly, flashing her semblance every now and then to avoid collisions, making her way to the reception desk where, of course, nobody was to be found. Anyway, to be sure, she brought the man back to the very entrance so next time he could get his bearings.

"Alright, w-we're back at the entrance. I'm s-slowly gonna take you through this so you c-can do it again yourself in the future, kay?" After a small pause, she resumed the previous, slow and measured walking pace, but this time towards the counter right near the entrance.